Legislature likely to see medical marijuana bill again

By Michael Maresh

While at least one medical marijuana bill likely will be coming to the Kansas Legislature next year, local law enforcement officials are adopting a wait-and-see approach in talking about how this potential new law would impact them.

The Kansas Health Institute recently looked into the potential impacts of what it could mean if medical marijuana became legal in the state.

According to a year-long study of other states that legalized marijuana for medicinal use, KHI found it could lead to increased marijuana-related car collisions and accidental ingestion hospitalizations, but not increased crime and illegal consumption.

The Kansas House of Representatives passed House Bill 2011 in the 2015 legislative session regarding medical marijuana, but it never made its way out of committee in the Senate.
HB 2011, sponsored by Rep. Gail Finney, D-Wichita, would have called for the registration and construction of compassion centers to provide assistance to ill people who might want to consider using marijuana for treatment.

Unlike the marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, these compassion centers would operate as nonprofits.
According to HB 2011, titled the Cannabis Compassion and Care Act, before a marijuana medicinal card could be issued, a written certification with the illness listed would need to be signed by a medical practitioner stating that in his or her professional opinion the patient is likely to benefit by using marijuana.

This could only be done after a full assessment of the patient’s medical history.
The bill stated that a person who has a registry card would be allowed to have up to 6 ounces of marijuana or 12 cannabis plants without fear of being arrested for having or using the drug.

State Rep. John Doll, R-Garden City, who voted for the medical marijuana bill in the last session, said he would be surprised if the bill does not come back to legislators in 2016.

“I voted for the medical aspect for chronically ill people who get so many chemicals pumped into them,” he said. “I am all for it.”

Doll said HB 2011 might come back with few, if any, changes to the 2015 bill.

“I don’t have a problem with medical marijuana for people who are terminally ill,” Doll said.

State Sen. Larry Powell, R-Garden City, said if the bill makes it to the Senate floor next year, he is not sure how he will vote.

“I need more information,” Powell said. “I need to study it more.”

“It’s hard to tell what the Senate will do,” he added. “They need to decide on what they think of the bill.”
The medical marijuana issue came to the forefront locally when 38-year-old Garden City woman Shona Banda, a medicinal marijuana advocate, was arrested and charged on multiple drug allegations, including possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school.

Banda, who has said she uses cannabis to treat her Crohn’s disease, made national news after being arrested, and her 11-year-old son was put into protective custody.

Banda also has been charged with endangering a child, unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia to use controlled substances and possession of paraphernalia with intent to manufacture, plant or cultivate a controlled substance.

A criminal arrest affidavit for Banda states that after securing a search warrant for her home on March 24, “approximately 500 grams of suspected marijuana, multiple marijuana smoking pipes, three ‘vaporizers’ that were actively manufacturing cannabis oil and multiple other items related to packaging and ingestion of marijuana were seized from the residence.”

The Garden City Police Department, Garden City USD 457, the State of Kansas, the governor and the Kansas Department of Children and Families are among the defendants in a lawsuit being prepared by attorneys for Banda that alleges her rights to use cannabis for medicinal purposes and maintain custody of her son have been violated.

Local law enforcement will be watching what action the Legislature takes in 2016.

Garden City police Capt. Randy Ralston said even if a medical marijuana bill were to pass, it would not change how his department responds to traffic violations involving drivers under the influence of marijuana, nor would it change the way his officers respond to the use or sale of marijuana for recreational use.

“It would be the same as we face now,” he said. “For instance, if a person is operating an automobile under the influence of prescribed medication, one issue is to investigate if they are under a prescription or not, and two, can they operate the vehicle safely.”

Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue said any violations that result from the use of medical marijuana, such as driving under the influence, would still be enforced by law enforcement. Someone could still be under the influence of legally possessed marijuana, he said.

“If they just made medical marijuana legal, the impact would be similar,” Bascue said. “It just would require some initial investigation to determine if the person was possessing the drug lawfully.”

Bascue said he doubts additional training for law enforcement would be necessary if medical marijuana were legalized.

Kansas Health Institute Senior Analyst Sarah Hartnig believes the biggest challenge law enforcement would face with medical marijuana being legal is proving a person is driving under the influence at the time of an arrest because THC, the major ingredient in marijuana, can stay in the blood for about 30 days.

“It’s tough with marijuana testing,” Hartnig said. “The impacts of THC can impact people differently. THC can stay (in the body) after the effects wear off.”

Bascue agreed that it would be difficult to initially determine marijuana use, but added that officers can request blood or urine for their tests.

When the KHI looked at states that legalized medical marijuana they found those states experienced a slight uptick in hospitalizations for accidental ingestion, mostly in children younger than 6. But that outcome was counterbalanced somewhat by fewer hospitalizations for opioid overdoses in those states, possibly from chronic pain sufferers who manage their symptoms with cannabis rather than prescription painkillers.

Bascue said he is not sure if medical marijuana would result in more marijuana use in Finney County, and Kansas in general, but said it would be a logical assumption.

The KHI, in its report, said marijuana ingestions were far less deadly than the opioid overdoses, which claim thousands of lives in the United States every year.

KHI also found that data from other states showed an increase in driving under the influence of marijuana and cannabis-related vehicle collisions following legalization for medical use, especially in states where medical marijuana is distributed through dispensaries rather than grown at home.

In eight of the 13 states for which data was available, marijuana-related traffic fatalities more than doubled after legalization for medicinal use.

Hartnig also said there were stipulations in the bill limiting where medicinal marijuana would be allowed.
“You can’t be under the influence if you are operating machinery or a vehicle,” she said. “You can’t have marijuana in your possession on school property, (modes of) public transportation and public parks.”

She stressed the bill and its companion bill, Senate Bill 9, only dealt with medicinal marijuana, not recreational marijuana, which would still be illegal in all instances.